• Nougat@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    He was committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. He’s talked about hearing voices. He’s threatened to shoot up a National Guard station. He and his associates are well-known local right-wing militia gun nuts that “people knew to stay away from.” None of that was sufficient to restrict his access to firearms.

    • penquin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      If this is true, then I think it’s safe to say that these shootings aren’t being taken seriously by our government on purpose. I don’t know what the purpose is, but it sure feels like it.

      • Bipta@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        The GOP benefits from these attacks in my view, especially when they’re in power. It makes it impossible for the news to cover the reprehensible things they do when mass murders happen every week.

        • tygerprints@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Well that sounds alarming, but in Mexico they do have armed police everywhere and the citizens actually feel safer. I don’t wish for a dystopian “big brother” world either, but with so many mental people abusing their gun rights and killing others, that is looking more and more like a not so implausible possibility. Frankly, I’d rather have police armed and everywhere than most lay people running around, pulling a gun every time someone looks at them funny or gives the them wrong order at McDonalds.

      • tygerprints@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That feels true when goverment’s response is simply, “give your hopes and prayers.” That all sounds good, but does nothing to solve the problem - the next mass shooting is just days away, and possibly will even make this halloween one of the deadliest in history.

    • tygerprints@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I know, and I knew this kind of background would emerge for him. All of these things SHOULD have been enough to restrict his access to firearms. But, on top of all this, he was living in a family “compound” (according to one neighbor) with family members who were known “gun nuts.” (his words not mine). It seems like he as an accident just waiting to happen, and no one cared enough to intervene.